Don't Shed A Tear
by Rark
Summary: Chizie or Chisame X Zazie fanfic. Chapter four is up and ready for reading folks, enjoy it.
1. There Gently Came a Rapping

**Chapter One**

There Gently Came a Rapping

It had been a 'normal' day for Chisame Hasegawa if you could call it that. She was at home at the moment complaining about her class 3A. "That brat of a teacher, how dare he. First he makes me translate an incredibly hard paragraph, which I couldn't do, and then everyone started to laugh at me for it. I'd like to see them do any better." she said as she removed her school uniform and started changing into an very fancy looking teal dress and matching bonnet.She turned on her computer that automatically went to her home page, well it wasn't actually Chisame's home page but Chiu's, the number one Net Idol in Japan, home page.

Chiu was Chisame's online alibi. She was checking the ratings board like she usually did and laughed, like she did everyday, when she saw it. "Still number one by far!" She said excitedly and laughed again. Still chuckling lightly her eyes slowly looked across the screen, checking for the names of other sites she was beating, when in fourth place was a site that was unfamiliar with, "Nightmare Circus? What the hel.." She thought aloud but was cut short by small chirping and scratching sound coming from her window.

The curtains were over the window and Chisame couldn't see what it was, not that would help for it had began to darken a little while ago. The chirping and scratching continued. Chisame's curiosity had gotten the best of her as she walked over to the window, "Stupid noises, probably a tree outside brushing against the window." She said to herself as she crept closer to the window. She reached the window and paused for a while and thought, "Wait a minute, there are no trees near the window, or this floor! What if one of my fanboys found out where I was and was stalking me?" She was sounding a bit panicked now but she made a decision, "All right then, if it's some stalker I'll just..." She paused a bit to think harder, "..put on my glasses. Yeah, then he won't know I'm Chiu." She smiled triumphantly but still reached for the curtains slowly. She stopped and took a deep breath and pulled open the blinds, and there on the windowsill was nothing, nothing at all. Chisame sighed in relief. "Must have been nothing after all." She turned away from the window and then the sounds came again. Chisame fell onto her knees and yelled "Have I gone crazy from being around my classmates to much!" She started to stand up as the sound kept pounding her ears. She turned around walked up to the window and yelled out "What!?!?" She got a few angry replies from people who had there windows open but she ignored them and looked around. She was just about to turn back around and catch her breath when a small bird flew into her room. She screamed as it brushed past the side of her head.

The bird had been flying circles in the room and perched on top of Chisame's monitor as she had to deal with a few complaints from her neighbors saying that she's to loud and should stop screaming. She explained that her pet bird had gotten out and scared her. The neighbors agreed with that but eyed her oddly. She still had the dress on, the bonnet had fallen off when she thought that she had gone crazy, she had no explanation for that but the neighbors didn't want to hear one for it anyway. When they left Chisame eyed the bird tilting it's head at her as if questioning her as well. "Oh no, uh uh, no way are you going to crap all over my computer." She said to the bird and she hurried off to one of the closets, looking back at it while she searched. She brought out an old hamster cage and opened it's door. The bird hopped in merrily and Chisame closed the door quickly. She placed it on the counter and eyed it suspiciously, " Stupid bird, I don't want you... But I'm not going to leave it outside either, the cold would kill it." She said quietly to not frighten the thing. She thought over what to do and said "I'll take you to school tomorrow and hopefully one of those nut jobs will want you." At the mention of school she looked down at the dress, the computer and then the clock. "Ack! It's so late! I'll hardly get any sleep!" She yelled and in almost a response she heard thumping from above her, a typical gesture of 'Shut up down there'. Chisame quickly changed into her pajamas, put the dress and bonnet away and turned off the computer. She draped a cloth over the cage and went off to bed.

Chisame's sleep wasn't perfect, she was haunted by dreams of a terrifying circus that she attended in her cosplay dress but she soon realized she wasn't attending the circus at all she was part of it. All of class 3A was there laughing when she tripped over what seemed to be cage. She plummeted down into a dark abyss when a giant bird of some strange species came flying at her. She landed on it's back and looked toward it's head and there sitting on it's neck was someone in a Mahora middle school uniform. The person started to turn around when she heard a loud buzzing.

The alarm clock buzzed and buzzed for minuets before Chisame hit the button to shut it off and then looked at the time. Ah! I've slept in to late, I'll miss my first class and by the time I get to Mahora my class will be... with that boy." She said grimly. She hurriedly put on her uniform and started to leave. She was just about to close the door when a small 'cheep' came from her room. "Right, the bird," she said as if it was a terrible burden. She went back into the room grabbed the cage and shook it a bit "hey, bird bet your brain is bigger than some of the bird brains your going to see today," with the cage in hand she got onto the train and left for Mahora. She was fairly alone on the train but got stares from most of the people that were on the train. The bird was chirping excitedly and was making a lot of noise. A few people asked if she could make it stop and one child pulled on his mom's shoulder and ask if they could get one like it. Then Chisame took a closer look at the bird, once she saw it in the light she couldn't identify it. It didn't seem like the type of bird that normally lived in Japan. She thought that maybe it had escaped from the zoo then sighed. "You seem like a lot of trouble you know that." She said to the bird, drawing even more stares. She then remembered her dream of an odd bird that caught her and the uniformed person that, now, seemed to have been piloting it. Chisame had been thinking the whole time until a voice came over the intercom, "Mahora Academy," she blinked as if being woken suddenly and walked off the train with cage in tow.

When she arrived in the school the period was just ending and the short break to get to next class had started. Not wanting to scare the bird to death because of the noise Chisame choose to go straight to English, Class 3A, at least there is would be moderately quiet. When she walked in the only people she saw was the Library group talking amongst themselves in very hush tones (she swore she heard Negi-sensei mentioned) , Ku Fei and Sakurazaki Setsuna talking about something to do with fighting and Zazie Rainyday sitting on the windowsill, much like the bird currently in the cage had done, staring outside and looking sad compared to her normal expressionless look. Chisame took her seat and put the cage on top of the desk. She started to rest her head in her hands and seemed to study the bird that was hopping around. Suddenly the Narutaki twins had appeared beside her and started talking in that loud, cheery voice they always did, "What that in there Hasegawa-san?" Fumika asked

"Yeah, is that your pet or something?" Fuka added.

"So much noise this early" Chisame thought, "Why couldn't they have left me alone?" Chisame coughed, "No you annoying twins this is not _my_ pet but it is someone's. It was on my windowsill last night and I thought someone here might want it," she said. She was about to tell the twins to go away when the bird hopped to the side of it's cage and started chirping happily. Zazie Rainyday had gotten off the windowsill and started walking over to the cage. The sad expression had left the girl's face and was replaced by a slight happy look. When Zazie reached the cage she bent over and looked right into the birds eyes and starting whistling to it. The bird stopped hopping and chirping and answered Zazie with what sounded almost like a 'purr'. Zazie, for the first time ever it seemed, smiled.

"Who found the bird?," she asked. She obviously hadn't been listening.

"I did. Why do you ask?" Chisame answered. "This is one of the strange people I like to avoid" her mind shot off. Zazie wrapped her arms around Chisame. "Wha...What are you doing?!?" Chisame shouted. By now everyone that was in the class was watching what was developing in the back of the room.

"What do you think is going on back there Yuecchi?" Nodoka asked

Yue shook her head, "I'm not sure Nodoka, what about you Haru?"

Haruna too shook her head "I'm not sure, I heard that the circus Rainyday-san is in made a web page to increase advertising and Hasegawa-san is the number one net idol so there might be competition, but the hugging? I'm not to sure."

"I might know what's going on," a voice said from behind them. The library group all turned around and saw who it was, Kazumi Asakura.

"What a surprise," Yue said sarcastically

"All right Kazumi, what do you got?" Haruna asked.

"Well," she started, pulling out a small notepad, "sometime last night, Rainyday-san had reported a missing pet."

"A missing pet? I didn't know she had one," Haruna replied

"No one really did but apparently she doesn't just have one pet she has dozens,"

"D..d...d... dozens of pets in one room, why doesn't she get reported or complaints against her?" Nodoka asked.

"Well the headmaster is a bit lenient on it because she uses them in her magic tricks."

"Magic tricks.." Yue repeated as she looked at Nodoka who started fidgeting with her fingers when magic was mentioned.

"So," Haruna cut in, "your saying that Rainyday-san lost a pet. Is that why she's hugging Hasegawa-san? Has the depression brought on by loosing a pet made her desperate for attention?"

"No" Kazumi flatly answered, "It means that Hasegawa-san found Rainyday-san's pet and she's happy about having her bird back." The library group all agreed that it made sense, except for Nodoka who was still fidgeting with her fingers.

Zazie was still hanging on to Chisame in the back of the room, "Hey! Get off of me!" Chisame shouted and Zazie complied and opened the door to the cage. The bird flew happily out of the cage and onto Zazie's shoulder who then pulled some seeds out of her pocket and raised the hand to her shoulder. The bird hopped into her hand and started eating. Zazie nodded, "Thank you, Hasegawa-san for finding him," she said quietly and turned back around to take her seat. More people had started coming into the classroom. Chisame felt lucky that Zazie had stopped and left her alone then and not now. People might start thinking she was as crazy as her, but when Zazie turned her back to sit down the image of Chisame's dream came back to her. The image of the person who was piloting that bird.


	2. Everyone's Help

**Chapter Two**

Everyone's Help

The afternoon sun was beating down on the school as Class 3-A was finishing. Zazie's newly reacquired bird was sitting outside in a tree singing it's song below the open window that Zazie was sitting by and the song could faintly be heard by anyone that listened but, class was ending soon so very few people were. "Before class ends," Negi said as he put the textbook he was reading from down, "I would like to mention that Rainyday-san had told me before class that her club was in need of volunteers to help with their next performance so, as a class activity, I volunteered the whole class!" He said with a smile. Small amounts of chatter had started before Negi spoke up again, "Now I'm not exactly sure of what were doing but Rainyday-san has a list of positions and I thought that I'd let her decide who does what, so, could you come up here Rainyday-san?"

Zazie stood up, with a piece of paper in hand, and started walking to the back of the class. Negi looked a bit surprised, "Eh, Rainyday-san, I meant you to..." He stopped for Zazie had put one of her index fingers to her lips signaling silence. Negi nodded, "OK then, continue." Zazie silently agreed and continued to the back wall of the class where there was the second chalkboard. She found a magnet and used it to hold up the paper. She turned around to face the class and motioned for them to come over.

The class was silent as they looked back and forth amongst themselves trying to think of what Zazie had meant. As the class was looking at one another trying to find answers but only finding shaken heads or shrugs Chisame thought about something else, "Morons, it's obvious what she wants us to do but, why didn't she speak? She spoke to me, even if it was only a few words." Chisame pondered when Negi spoke up,

"I believe she wants us to go back there and read it," he said and different reactions were heard, but they were all drowned out by Asuna's,

"Negi, you baka! Why'd you tell us? Someone could have figured it out!" she yelled at him. Konoka giggled, "Asuna, I knew but you didn't ask," she whispered into Asuna's ear but before she could respond Ayaka chuckled in her smug way,

"Oh Kagurazaka-san, could a monkey like you have understood her even if she spoke?" Ayaka's mock must had pushed Asuna's buttons because she had almost instantly appeared next to Ayaka,

"Why you cradle-robbing..." Asuna yelled before Ayaka and her started to fight. A small crowd circled them and Sakurako was heard starting bets. By chance almost, between the exchange of insults, a loud "Kya!," was heard from the back. Makie was reading the paper that Zazie had posted and was now looking back at the class,

"Hey guys, there's some really fun jobs to do on this list!," she exclaimed. The fight had paused once the "kya," was heard and completely dissipated after Makie spoke. The watching crowd had now huddled around Zazie's list mumbling with each other about the jobs on it.

Zazie had once again signaled for silence and the girls slowly quieted down. Zazie quietly cleared her throat and open her mouth as if she was going to speak but pointed to the first job on the list instead. The job underneath her right index finger read, " show clowns." She then pointed to Misa, Madoka and Sakurako. The three of them eyed each other and Madoka called out,

"What is that suppose to mean?! What are we going to do?." Zazie closed her eyes and thought for a second then she turned around to face the black board, grabbed the chalk and started writing. She placed the chalk back into place and turned back around when she finished and let the class read what she had wrote, "All will be explained at a meeting on a later date," Madoka felt better now that she had asked her question but wasn't thrilled about the answer, "Fine," she said disgruntled. Since Zazie didn't have to describe anything else she picked up the pace of assigning jobs; Negi and Asuna were to do a magic act together, Negi looked surprised and whispered to Asuna,

"D..do you think she knows about me and the pactio?" He said nervously into her ear and she shrugged her answer back,

"Don't know but if she does, it doesn't matter much does it?"

Yuna. Makie, Ako and Akira were to do a group performance, Kazumi was put to work advertising and announcing the acts, Yue, Nodoka and Haruna were to be vendors selling merchandise, Misora was to be a stage hand, Chachamaru was to be on safety duty, Ku Fei, Chao and Satsuki were food vendors, Konoka and Setsuna were to do an act together as well, Konoka grabbed onto Setsuna's arm,

"Won't this be fun se-chan, doing something like this together?" She said happily and Setsuna blushed and replied

"O..of course ojou-sama," she sputtered out. Zazie continued on with her list. Mana was security, Kaede, Fuka, Fumika were to be lion tamers which made Fumika a bit scared but Kaede calmed her down while Fuka was hopping excitedly, Satomi was to be in charge of lighting and music, Evangeline was to make a small performance by herself. The idea of doing a something by herself made her cross with the whole idea until Zazie moved her hands as if she was controlling invisible marionettes which changed her frustration to confusion. _How can she know of that?_ Evangeline thought and Zazie continued with the last few people left on the list.; Ayaka was to supervise the class and make sure that everyone had their performances ready in time and Natsumi and Chizuru were to mime.

Almost as soon as Zazie had finished pointing out people, the bell had rung and everybody started to leave. Zazie went back to her desk to get her briefcase-like bag and by the time she had picked it up everybody had left the room except for on other person, Chisame. Chisame had stood though Zazie's little 'presentation' and thought that it was a large waste of time but when Zazie's finger had never pointed at her she felt something drop in her chest, she had been left out of a class activity without any apparent thought for her. She walked up to Zazie and asked "Rainyday-san, why was I not given any job?" Zazie looked longingly out the window, "not that I wanted to or anything," Chisame hastily added trying not to sound so disappointed about it. Zazie's bird flew through the window. Zazie stuck out a finger for it to land on and she turned around to face Chisame,

"Hasegawa-san has done something special for me so I wanted to give her a special job." Zazie said in the same quiet voice that she used before, "So I want you to consider doing the job of..." Chisame cut Zazie off,

"Ringmisstress, that's what it is, isn't it?"

"Y.. yes... How did you know?" Zazie's face showed a bit of surprise when Chisame had correctly guess the job she was going to get.

"To be honest, it was from a dream. I saw a circus and me in the center of it all and..." Chisame stopped. She didn't want to say that Zazie was in it and that she already felt weird talking about a dream, none the less to her of all people.

"Hasegawa-san is lucky to have been able to see that, I hope nothing bad happened in the dream." Zazie voice had changed to a softer tone.

"No, not really," Chisame felt the blood slowly flowing to her cheeks and giving them a slight reddish colour, "but, uh, I just wanted to know why I was left out is all. Thank you for clearing it up." She said quickly and she turned away to get her own briefcase bag and leave. As Chisame opened the door and was about to step out she heard Zazie's voice,

"I hope you sleep better tonight then." Chisame didn't turn around only paused for a second before continuing to walk out of the class. Zazie stayed in the class for a little while after Chisame had left and brought her bird closer to her face, "Is that why you left last night Palor? To bring us together? " The bird moved it's head and chirped happily. A smile crossed Zazie's face, something that no one had seen, "Thank you Palor." She said quietly to the bird before she too, walked out of the class.


	3. Shockwaves

**Rark Says: Well, before I begin, I would just like to say to anyone who put up with my year long search for words to finish this chapter, THANK YOU for being so patient with me. To any new readers, hello! Anyway, you maybe wondering why this took so long to write, well, read and you might have an inkling as to why. I'm sorry to any Misora fans in advance, that was just the one character I really don't care much, especially when I reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllyyyyyyyyyy just want to finish this fic. I think it suits Akamatsu style though, so ENJOY!**

**BTW, I have none ownership of the series and names inside this fic, so no suey for meeeee .**

**Chapter Three**

Shock waves

It had been a few hours since Zazie had assigned jobs to the class 3-A but the ripple effect of her announcement had just started. With the afternoon sun high in the sky Misa, Madoka and Sakurako, the assigned 'show clowns' were at Starbooks Coffee sitting at an outdoor table sipping their drinks. Madoka slammed her fist down on the table, "Where does Rainyday-san get off on calling us clowns!" She said angrily. Misa and Sakurako laughed at Madoka's reaction,

"Your taking this to seriously Madoka-chan" Misa said with a smile

"Yeah, she wasn't just calling us clowns. She said we were show clowns. That means we are probably the best for the job if it involves cheering of some kind." Sakurako added as she laughed again. Madoka's face showed that she was still angry but she knew that they were right, "Yeah, your right. We'll just have to do an amazing performance to show that we're not clowns, we are professionals!" She exclaimed happily while cheering the last bit and in unison all three jumped up and pumped a fist in the air as they yelled "Yeah!" Other people stared at the girls and one woman asked to the people around her, "What do those clowns think they're doing?"

Some distance away outside of the girls dormitory, Negi, Asuna, Konoka and Setsuna were all talking about the events of the class, "Negi, why did you have to do something like that? Volunteering the whole class, what were you thinking?" Asuna belted out at the child teacher as she lifted him up with one hand by his head. Konoka tried to calm Asuna down like she always did,

" Asuna, he was just trying to help Rainyday-san besides isn't this going to be fun, being in a circus and all. That and I get to do something with my se-chan." She broke off from calming Asuna to smile and once again grab Setsuna's arm causing a scarlet colour to appear in her pale cheeks, "What are we going to do as our act anyway?" She asked Setsuna, who's reddish colour was fading slower than she'd like,

"Uh, ummmm, I don't know ojou-sama. I was hoping that you would think of something." Setsuna said quietly as she looked down at the ground, which must have been quite fascinating for how contentedly she was staring at it.

"Well let's think of this tonight, I'll stay with you so Negi and Asuna can think of their magic act quietly. This way it'll be a surprise for us as long they don't tell us." Konoka happily replied. Asuna let go of Negi and he fell on his butt with an "ow!"

"Yeah your right, Negi and I should think of what we're going to do for this thing too. What I wanna know is how Rainyday-san knew about Negi's magic." She put her hands behind her head in a relaxed fashion as they continued to walk through the dorms. "but that can just wait till we're inside our room before we talk about that." Asuna pointed out. She opened the door that lead to the room that Konoka, Negi and her shared while Negi walked in rubbing his rear,

"Asuna-saaaaaan, why did you have drop me so hard?" He whined but she didn't care to answer. She turned to Konoka and asked, "Aren't you coming in?" Konoka shook her head,

"No, I think I'll spend some time with se-chan here. Even if it isn't night yet I'm going to stay with her for a while," Konoka replied as if she was planning some great fantasy for tonight. "Well see you tomorrow," she waved back at Asuna as she pulled Setsuna along with her down the hall. "Maybe we'll have to put on costumes for this too. We'll just have to try that," she said on the way to Setsuna's place and Setsuna's face, that had just became normal colour again, went an even deeper shade of red than it did last time.

Asuna closed the door and leaned her back on it as she took a deep breath and sighed it out, "Jeez, what goes through Konoka's mind sometimes is scarier than any demon." She said quietly to herself. When she walked farther into the room she saw that Negi had laid down with his back on the ground. "Well brat, thanks to you we've got to make this evening productive and think up an interesting magic show." She replied lazily as she sat down at the table. Ayaka, who was returning from the horse-riding club, was passing by the Negi/Asuna room. Out of chance in the silent hallways she had heard Asuna say something about a magical evening and threw open the door,

"Kagurazaka-san! What are you planing on doing to my Negi-sensei!" She yelled at Asuna who seemed to be completely oblivious to the situation "No one can do that to him, except maybe me." She added with the last part being quite mumbled. Asuna was about to return Ayaka's visit with something of her own when Negi sat up and said tiredly.

"Yukihiro-san, could you please leave us alone right now. Were talking about the show that were going to do for Rainyday-san's circus and we wouldn't want to spoil it for you." His polite tone made Ayaka's eyes water,

"Of course Negi-sensei. I'm very sorry about disturbing your work." Ayaka bowed in apology, turned around and left the room leaving Negi and Asuna to think on their act. Ayaka closed the door behind her and walked a bit down the hallway before leaning her back against the wall and sighing deeply, "Oh, Negi-sensei your such a gentleman. I know you'll come to me one day." She said to the empty hall. She wiped the small amount of water from her eyes and continued to her room

"That's not quite right Chizuru-chan." Natsumi had pointed out as Chizuru's hands were out of place again. They had been working on their mime act for an hour now. Natsumi was already good at mime from her exercises in the drama club but Chizuru had no experience what so ever. Chizuru rubbed the back of her head with her left hand,

"I'm sorry Natsumi but this is hard, with my boobs getting in the way and all." She lifted them to add effect to what she said. Natsumi just sulked with her head down,

"I know, you don't have to remind me," she whispered.

"What was that Natsumi?" Chizuru asked in her nice sounding yet threatening way and quickly Natsumi denied that she had even spoke. "Well dinner is almost ready, maybe a break and a good meal will help." Chizuru said as she put her apron on and went into the kitchen. Natsumi plopped down onto the couch and sighed. She didn't mind that Chizuru wasn't getting it right, they had time to work on that, it was that she was messing up because of her body. Natsumi never had those types of problems but she couldn't help but feel jealous about them. She was about to lay down when a knock came from the door. Natsumi got up to open it and see who it was when she heard some muffled conversation and then silence. She assumed that the person had left and started to turn around when Ayaka opened the door a bit red faced and sounding out of breath.

"Oh Ayaka-chan, your back already. How was the horse-riding club?" Natsumi asked.

"Wha...oh yeah, it was fine. Same thing as always." Ayaka seemed distracted with something. Natsumi was about to ask what was wrong with her when, again, a knock came from the door, but it was more of a pounding this time. "Oh no. I thought I got rid of him." Ayaka mumbled but Natsumi was already at the door turning the knob. When she pulled open the door she came face to face with a flustered Kotarou. Natsumi stepped back, surprised with his sudden visit.

"Ko... Kotarou-kun, what are you doing here?" Natsumi asked, stuttering with his name.

"Well, I WAS coming here to see what you and Chizuru-chan were doing," Kotarou lied. He missed them and had no food at his place so he went to the only people who seemed to care about him besides a bratty teacher, "but then I was yelled at by that hentai over there," he pointed over at Ayaka.

"Don't you know that only monkeys point." Ayaka shot back. Kotarou was ready for a fight of words when Chizuru looked out of the kitchen,

"Oh, Kotarou-kun is here. Would you like to stay for dinner?" She asked in her friendly, motherly way. Of course Kotarou answered to the question he was dying to hear,

"What is it?" He said it with bit of distaste left from fighting with Ayaka and Chizuru immediately came next to him,

"Well it's some fresh onion soup," she said to him holding part the negi that was in the soup, "but perhaps some soap for a little boy who shouldn't talk back to such kindly people," she whispered threateningly into his ear and Kotarou's spine shuttered and he stood straight,

"Ahhh, n..n...no Chizuru-chan, I'd be happy with the soup, please." He said with quite some fear in his voice and Chizuru smiled, nodded and went back into the kitchen. Kotarou hid behind Natsumi and whimpered onto her shoulder, "So scary Natsumi-chan."

Elsewhere on campus, in the university division, there sat a girl, well, not really a girl, it was the gyronoid Chachamaru. She was sitting on a would-be examination table in a metallic, science lab by herself with the shirt of her school uniform folded neatly sitting next to her, exposing her casing. This was nothing new to the wind-up robot, just procedure. When the door expectedly opened and Satomi Hakase walked in wearing her standard lab coat. It went by as a standard inspection for Chachamaru, with the normal tests and checkups on her parts, when Satomi started up some conversation. "So Chachamaru, what do you think of Rainyday-san and her show?" she asked, to which Chachamaru replied plainly,

" Zazie Rainyday, student number 31. Her marks are...," she started before Satomi stopped her and with a nervous laugh said,

" No, not what I meant, let me rephrase that, what do you think of Negi-sensei volunteering the class for her show?" Chachamaru paused for a moment before, in a hurried fluster, stuttered her answer,

"I...I think that Negi-sensei was kind to do that for Rainyday-san and that it'll be enjoyable for the class."

"Hmm, thought so," she quickly noted a slight rise in Chachamaru's internal temperature and continued, "but I'd like to know why'd she have a genius like myself just do a simple task like lighting when I could make... .say... a whole pop-up stadium for her to use for her show." Satomi proudly proclaimed. To which Chachamaru replied,

"Maybe because circuses don't need such technology, and that there is already a building to be used for the event." she pointed out, which garnered a head drop of shame from Satomi for not knowing such a simple fact.

Evangeline was outside the room that Satomi was examining Chachamaru in, tapping her foot impatiently. "Why does she have to take so long." she said disgruntled, "though what concerns me right now is Rainyday-san. How did she know about my puppetry skills? I don't flaunt my abilities around like that Negi-bozo and it's not common knowledge that I can do that, never mind the fact that she's making me put on a show using it! That girl, something's different about her... something I just can't figure out..." She was deep in thought when Chachamaru opening the door brought her back to her surroundings,

"We're finished Master. Shall we return home?" the android asked. Evangeline nodded and started to walk with Chachamaru, still in partial thought. To break the silence, Chachamaru asked, "Master, for the show, will you be using Chachazero?" Since Chachamaru was on safety duty, she had to process concern for the audience and the others in the class. Eva's response came slowly since her thinking had been broken,

"Why? What does it matter if I do?" They had now left the university and were on one of the many walkways on campus.

"Although I cannot disobey an order from Master, Hakase-san is also a master of mine and as she will be at the show as well, I must keep her safe. Since this is in relation to my appointed job it also includes the class and audience and with Chachazero's "tendencies" I don't think it would be logical to use her." Chachamaru stated. With a small sigh, Eva agreed,

"I see your point, besides, I didn't plan on using Chachazero. I wanted to use someone a bit more... realistic." she said with an evil smirk.

"Very well Master." Chachamaru acknowledged as they continued their walk to the cottage.

With a repetitive task, perhaps it's natural for the mind to wonder, and in Library Island, checking in books, that was just what had happened to Miyazaki Nodoka. While she was still marking the books in as returned, she was daydreaming. There was a azure blue sky with seldom any clouds. She could tell because she was up where they usually would be in the sky, flying atop of a wooden staff. When she did pass by a cloud, she reached out and let the cool, moist air of it pass though her fingers, but with only one hand keeping her on the staff she started to fall off. Before she could even utter a scream, a hand quickly grabbed hers and pulled her back up, "You've got to be more careful when your up so high, Miyazaki-San," said a soft, gentile voice. Looking up from the endless green field that she would have become a smear on, Nodoka looked right into the hazel eyes of Negi Springfield. He brought his head forward to kiss her and slowly, Nodoka muttered,

"N...N...N...Negi...sensei..."

"Nodoka, are you ok? You've been holding that book for a while now." Yue cued in, snapping Nodoka out of her dream. Looking down Nodoka inadvertently read the title the book she was holding aloud,

"If You Love Negi, ah!" she let out a small yelp after reading only the first line. The book was on alternate cooking methods using onion.

"Nodoka," again, Yue cued in, "are you feeling all right?" Nodoka stuttered and before she could answer Haruna came barged into the conversation,

"Nah, she's fine Yue. Just probably a little surprised from that announcement from Rainyday-san is all," finding a quick way to change the subject Nodoka agreed,

"Mmhm, it came as such a bad time, with all the library work we have coming up. I was just thinking of a way to do it all," she said with a nod. Off to the side Yue asked,

"Haruna, where did you come from?"

"Oh, I finished putting the books back on the shelves is all."

"Mhmm," Yue acknowledged, "Anyway, it can't be that hard, we're only selling a few things. Drinks and the like I assume," a small amount a joy went through her brain with the possibility of new drinks. Haruna shrugged,

"I think that was maybe a bit to much work to put on a class with so many people in busy clubs."

"N..no," Nodoka charmed in, "I...I think it was a very generous thing that Negi-sensei did. It'll be fun for everyone too though, right?" Nodoka answered with a smile. The thought of helping Negi-sensei in anyway made her very happy.

"I guess your right Nodoka," Haruna agreed, noticing Nodoka's smile, "More books there? I'll go put them back then," picking up the books she left again

"Nodoka," Yue mumbled, knowing what Nodoka must be thinking. She wanted to comfort her friend about Negi, but she couldn't let herself show a weak front like that about him. she was fighting for his affection too.

"Yue," Nodoka asked, pushing aside some of the books between them, "What do you think Negi-sensei will do about his part of Rainyday-san's show? Would he use real magic in front of that many people? What if he gets really stressed between planning and his classes? What if..."

"Nodoka." Yue interrupted sternly, "Negi-sensei will know what to do. He'll be fine with balancing his duties, and if he has problems, then that's the perfect chance to go and get close with him." Nodoka knew exactly what Yue was saying. Negi was very adult and would be able to deal with any blocks he might get about his show. It was one of the reasons that she admired him so, but Yue's last part surprised her. She was always cheering Nodoka on, but it was to vague for Nodoka's liking. With a smile Nodoka replied,

"Your right Yue. I guess I was just really worrying about Negi-sensei" she finished with an embarrassed chuckle, just for show before going back to checking in books.

"So am I," Yue thought to herself. The fact that Zazie made him do a magic act, worried her to an incredible degree. At least, she was a bit happy that it'd give her a chance to consult Negi on the idea. She too, slowly went back to work.

"Walking! Walking! Walking! Walking!" Could be heard happily being cheered out by the walking club as Kaede, Fuka and Fumika made their way through a part of the massive forest behind Mahora Academy. Abruptly, the younger twin, Fumika, called out, "Kaede-san! Where are we going anyway? You've taken us around half the campus already!" she whined.

"Ane-san, your not scared or anything, riiiight?" Fuka taunted with a sly grin.

"O.. of course not." Fumika returned, slightly taken back by her sister's comment, "It's just that my... feet are tired, that's all." As the two twins bickered back and forth Kaede turned around with a puzzled look on her face.

"Oh, it's you two. I drifted off about half an hour ago. Sorry about that" she said with an embarrassed head scratch.

"Then, how were you walking?" The twins instantly asked in unison.

"Oh that, just something I've picked up through my training. It's awfully hard to get attacked while your sleeping when it doesn't look like you are. Nin nin!" Kaede finished with a smile.

"Oh wow!" the twins exclaimed in unison with looks of excitement. They then started to relentlessly batter Kaede with various questions around things she could teach them. Kaede ended it with a laugh,

"All right, all right. Listen, I'll teach you two something later, for the lion taming that we'll be doing, okay?" Fumika squirmed with the thought of the large feline that'll be facing them while Fuka jumped with joy at the mention of ninja techniques.

"Okay then Kaede-san, we'll live you to... Ummmm... whatever it is that your doing here, bye!" Fuka said giddily while she grabbed her shivering sister and ran off. As they ran off, Kaede had a little chuckle to herself at the two before continuing walking to her destination and after a few more steps into the woods, it was in her sight Tatsumiya Shrine. "Heh, time to see how pudding's doing" Kaede said with a smile.

Loud screams could be heard off in the distance from the Tatsumiya shrine. A solemn maiden was sweeping the sacred grounds when she heard the noise. Effortlessly, she started to edge a small handgun down the sleeve of her garb. She scanned the area with eyes that could only be described as that of a woman possessed. A breeze came through, making the traditional trousers she wore wave in the wind. Then, as quick as lightning, she turned, gun fully drawn and pointed right, into a waiting finger.

"Now then pudding, you wouldn't want to be shooting that at me like this now, would you?" Mana laughed at the comment,

"Ha, I guess not, maybe sometime later though, I'd love to see some of your moves though." The miko commented back.

The air was clouded with smoke while the sizzling of cooking oil and fats filled the ears of the three girls cooking meat buns in the dorm kitchen for sale tomorrow. Chao Lingshen and Ku Fei were singing a song in Chinese while Satsuki Yotsuba just cooked quietly with a smile.

"Chao-san," Ku said, disrupting the singing, "can I ask you something?" Chao looked at the girl perplexed,

"Of course Fei-chan, but why the formality?"

"Well, it's just because I want your honest opinion on something," Ku said, turning away slightly, "and not just thing of me being silly or something."

"Again, of course" Chao replied, getting more and more confused about what the girl was going to say.

"Okay then," Ku took a deep breath, "don't you think we should be doing something other than a concession job at the circus thing? I mean why don't we spar for a while or something, aru ne?" She blurted out quickly with a massive jolt of energy and smiled. Chao stood there, stunned at what she had just seen and what she was thinking might have been said. Slowly, she started chuckling,

"Heh...heh...heh..." before completely bursting out laughing hysterically. It was now Ku's turn to be confused, as she stood there with her head tilted trying to understand what was so funny.

"Aru ne?" was all she could think of saying. Chao had to wipe a tear from her eye as she tried to stop laughing.

"Ah, ah, no... it's nothing." Chao said in between chuckles, "I was just thinking it might have been something else." A slight sigh of relief escaped her as she tried to put any thoughts of what Chao could never accept, out of mind. "Now, let's get back to work, okay? She said with a clap. Ku enthusiastically made a fist and nodded,

"Right away, Chao-san!"

Condensation had beaded up on the window, while steam rose into the air. Slight mutters could be heard amongst the humid air.

"Oh! That felt good, do that again." A voice said to another one there who must have agreed silently because another "Oh!" rang through the bathhouse. "Thanks," the voice started out, "Yuuna, I just couldn't get that spot on my back, thanks for the help." said the pink haired gymnast Makie.

"Ahhh, a relaxing bath after a long day" Yuuna moaned out during a stretch, "Ako, would you like me to do your back next?" She asked. Ako timidly declined,

"Sor... sorry Yuuna, I'm fine. I'll just, swim around a bit with Akira." As Ako finished, she started to swim over to Akira, who was gleefully and silently doing laps around the pool.

Makie started to feel antsy with the silence that had fallen over the sports quad and burst out with,

"Hey guys! The thing that Negi-sensei is letting us do for Rainyday-san, what're doing for it!" The stillness that the bathhouse had made had completely been destroyed by her out burst. No one could think of something to say after that. It was Akira who broke the silence,

"We should just, wait until that meeting that Rainyday-san mentioned. How's that?" Makie stood dumbfounded,

"Yeah... I guess we could do that. Heh, poor Kasuga-san, she got stuck with a boring job." She said, before splashing Yuuna and starting an all out water war between the four of them.

On the far side of the campus, in the Catholic Church, Misora Kasuga sneezed.

The mechanical hum of the PC emanated throughout Chisame's monitor lit room. The usual Chiu online persona wasn't out tonight. Only Chisame, the "normal" geeky school girl. She didn't care about her ratings today, she didn't even look at Chiu's home page at all. The only reason she was online was the newly created site of the Nightmare Circus. She browsed through pages full of nothing important; attendance size, times of shows, programs, and things of the like that meant noting to Chisame. When finally, her eyes lit up when she hit the performers bio page. Quickly scrolling down the page's alphabetical ordered list of names until she found the only name that mattered on that list, "Rainyday, Zazie". Chisame was so focused on finding information on Zazie, that she didn't notice any the names of people currently working that she had just passed or the ones she never saw farther down the list. Never did it strike her as odd that Zazie needed people to put on a show when there was already at least fifty people already working. The only thing she thought about was what she would see after clicking the link. As her finger rose to click the button, she heard a tapping, a familiar tapping, coming from a familiar place, "The window..." Chisame said, almost mesmerized by what she hoped was outside her window. She hurried over to the window, but once she reached it, she paused, "Wait... it... could be..." Chisame started to think out loud of what it could be, like the first time, but stopped. She didn't care what it was, whatever it was, it would distract her from Zazie for a little while at least. Closing her eyes, Chisame reached out and opened her window. The only noise now was that of normal sounds outside her window so Chisame slowly and cautiously, opened one of her eyes and peered at what made the noise. Sure enough, it was exactly what she expected, Zazie's bird was standing on the windowsill with a letter inclosed in it's beak. "Why are you here again? Is that for, me or are you sure your not lost little bird?" Chisame asked, oddly nice to the small bird, though she knew full well that it was. Chisame slowly took the letter from the creature and as soon as the letter had been removed from it's beak, it took off. Chisame watched stunned as it took off and left her alone with the letter. The sun was setting and the blue glow of the computer screen was the only light source in the room. Taking the letter closer to the monitor, Chisame's thoughts became chaotic with possible things it could say, but all that came to mind were frightening. Increasingly scared, Chisame hands shook fiercely as she opened the letter that she cut her finger on not only the knife she was using to open it, but the letter itself as she pulled it out. Cursing her luck as the letter fell to the floor Chisame slowly picked up the letter and her eyes when wide after reading and she dropped the letter. She grabbed the long-sleeved uniform coat and did something she had never done, she left her computer, and her room to ran off into the night.

Two girls laughter was heard in the twilight of the evening as they walked away with ice creams from a convenience store. The owner had a slight frown on her face as she heard there reaction to the story she had just told them. It was about a malicious poltergeist that haunted the campus and hung around convenience stores to take the souls of customers who it deemed offensive to take to hell with it. The owner sighed and went back to work on stalking shelves, but unbeknownst to her another girl was giggling about the story that she had told. It wasn't that the owner was poorly sighted or that the girl was hiding, it was that the girl giggling was invisible to her. It was class 3-A's own ghost Aisaka Sayo. The tale that was told was so off from what she was that it almost put her in hysterics. She wished that they could have seen her floating next to them, listening with interest in what she would be called this time. Just a little while ago she would have cried when she heard such stories about her, but now, she didn't mind the stories. Now she had a friend she could talk to. Sayo slammed her fist into her cupped, opposite hand. She had just remembered that Kazumi was out late tonight and Sayo planned on visiting her. She floated left, through the wall of the store and went off to go find Kazumi.

Kazumi had been snooping around the old clock tower for almost a hour. She had heard that Zazie came here sometimes at night and Kazumi wanted to know why. "This could be a huge scoop!" She quietly exclaimed. Kazumi scurried around in the bushes around the decrepit building looking for a good place to hide for the stake out or of evidence of whatever Zazie was doing. She had hunched down in the shadow of a tree when a transparent head popped out of the trunk with a, "hello". Kazumi fell back in surprise and fear while the rest of Sayo went through the tree and hovered above her. With a panicked look on her face Sayo floated down to the level of her fallen friend, "Oh, Kazumi! Did I scare you? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so sorry, I scared you..." Sayo was close to tears. Her only friend and she had scared her out her wits. Kazumi shook her head and sat up on the ground,

"No, it's all right Sayo, you only startled me a bit," Kazumi said with an embarrassed laugh. Once she opened her eyes again after the laugh, she noticed something through Sayo at the top of the ancient tower. She hastily took out her camera with the zoom lens for a closer look, and it wasn't a something, but a someone.

Climbing the spiraled, degrading stone steps towards the top of the old clock tower, her favorite place. Still in school uniform and her book bag still with her, Zazie Rainyday was going to ask a friend of hers for a favor. The damp and cool inside the tower gave Zazie goose bumps, but it was a delightful feeling whenever she was there. As she reached the top, it's view could catch the still setting sun far off in the distance. An artist couldn't paint a more perfect scene. Zazie walked to the edge of building and sat, looking over the school's campus and city. She didn't have to wait long for to see who she was waiting for, as they came closer Zazie softly called out their name, "Palor," as she spoke the bird went right to her shoulder, as usual. "Palor, I need you to be strong for me." Zazie quietly cooed to the bird. She pulled out her a piece of paper and a pen from her bag and quickly wrote a fair sized letter. She sealed it in an envelope that too was in her bag. "Here," she said quietly as she placed the letter near the birds feet, "This is new for you, I know, but I want you to deliver this to Hasegawa-san". Palor nodded and opened his beak for Zazie to place the letter in, which she did, and instantly the bird's head dipped down because of the weight it was now holding. "I'm sorry Palor to burden you with a weight I alone should carry, but I fear that Hasegawa-san wouldn't like me very much if we were to be in the dorms together". Zazie apologized to the bird and stroked it softly with her index finger, "Take as long as you need. I won't leave until Hasegawa-san and I discuss a few things," Palor tilted his head and made a muffled chirping sound, as if questioning Zazie's decision. With a smile Zazie answered, "Don't worry, I have no doubt that she will show up," and with that answer Palor went on his way.

That was a hour and a half ago. Zazie had been replaying that memory in her mind ever since. She was partially worried that Palor had not made it to Chisame's room because the weight was to much and that she might have lost a very good friend because of her own cowardice. Though she appeared calm, she was torn inside, be it from Palor having not yet returned or what she'd do once Chisame had arrived. She was at the point of breaking down, even the crisp night air and beautiful view of the campus and the distant lights of the city couldn't help keep her calm. When suddenly she felt a weight on her shoulder. It wasn't much weight, but it was enough to know that something had landed on it. Palor lightly nipped on her ear to make sure she knew he was there, and when Zazie turned to see that the letter hadn't returned with him and she felt as if a large burden was off her back. Joyously she thanked the bird with praise, pets and thankful whistles, but, Zazie wouldn't be able to stay that way for long. She needn't have Chisame frightened more than she already may be. It wasn't hard for Zazie to regain her usual appearance with her still unsure of how exactly to talk to Chisame and just what she might think of it. Though she had a calm appearance, she was a bit excited to be talking to Chisame again. "All that's left now is to wait for Hasegawa-san to arrive."

"Damn!" Chisame thought as she ran to the old clock tower. She was hardly half way there, twenty minutes or so away from her room, and she felt like she could collapse. "Ducking out of gym seems like a bad idea now," she huffed out. Not only was her throat dry and her lungs pounding, the cuts on her finger hadn't stopped bleeding. I was only a slight pain to Chisame, but the blood kept trickling down her hand and forearm till it would drip off. "Not only am I going to be exhausted, I'm going to look like a mess and not be able to speak!" Again she cursed her luck while she slowed down to a hurried walk. She could see the tower, and the path that would take her to it, but it was just so far to her, but the thoughts of what Zazie wanted to talk about had made her curious again and given her a second wind. She pushed on in a run again and reached the tower forty-five minutes after leaving. When she arrived, Chisame was confused. By what she saw, there was no entrance. The weed riddled ground had grown quite tall and the only possible way in looked like it had been boarded up a long while ago. Frustrated and tired Chisame slapped the air, but instead hit a tall weed and it's seeds rubbed into Chisame's still bleeding wound. "Damn," she let out before bringing the finger up to her face to examine. It wasn't infected or anything, so she decided it must be on account on her running that it was still bleeding. When she let her arm fall carefully back down, her now focused brain noticed that the boards were in terrible shape and some had fallen away, leaving a slit that she could go through. "A stroke of good luck?! Finally!" She thought while she hastily approached her would be entrance and started to bend over the wooden planks when her eyes opened wide. A small "Ah!" Escaped her mouth. After all the times of Photoshocking herself smaller, she never considered that she'd be to big and wouldn't fit. Finally fed up with her horrendous luck, she let it all out in a kick to the wooden boards that seemed to ridicule her very attempt at fitting. Taking deep breaths, she calmed herself down and once mental stability had returned, she noticed that her enraged actions had given her a perfect sized way into the tower. Not wasting anymore time keeping Zazie waiting and herself out in the open, she climbed through the now expanded hole and let out a big "You gotta be kidding me!" When she saw what waited for her inside.

The tower's interior had aged better than it's outdoor counterpart, but it hadn't gotten by unscathed. The winding stone staircase, attached to the walls of the tower, had been breaking away over time and had left large gaps in the only way up. That was the only visible damage to Chisame. The faint light trickling down from various holes in it's structure made it difficult for Chisame to tell if there was any more, but she had to keep her thoughts on what to do next. The run here had exhausted her and her legs felt like rubber. Her still bleeding finger gave a little tinge of pain as a reminder that it was still there. Looking at it again, she wished she had something to stop the bleeding, but came up empty handed. She started to question her choice to come here. All it's been so far was one incident after another, "What if Zazie got tired of waiting and left already?" Chisame thought, "and what was so important that she had to get me to come all the way out here too?" Though she thought that it'd be a fruitless venture, Chisame slowly, carefully started to walk, stumble and crawl her way up the aging stone steps to the tower's peak. The stairs proved to be an adventure all on their own with gaps in several places where pieces had fallen away and the number of times that Chisame would stub her toe on the cold stone. By the time she reached the door at the top of the stairs, a hour had passed since she first left her dorm. "Damn," she whispered to herself, "I took to long. The poor girl probably left alread..." she cut herself off as she covered her mouth, "What did I just say?" she asked herself. Zazie was one of the weird ones that she hated in her class, why should she care if she stood one up, even if it was by accident? A stinging pain started to work it's way up inside her as guilt started to set in. All the work that Zazie did to ask Chisame here would have went to waste and she might never find out what she came here to talk to Zazie about. Chisame grasped the rusting handle on the door and took a deep breath. With that inhale, she hope that Zazie would be on the other side of the door. She held her breath as she pushed open the door to face the starlit night and a warm breeze on her face but no sight of anyone else. Walking out of the doorway with a look of disappointment. "Rainyday...san?" she quietly called out. Guilt was in full force as she continued to be the only on the old tower. In desperation, Chisame started to look down over the edges of the tower, hoping that maybe she was on a lower edge or something, but to no avail. Feeling guilty and depressed about her wasted efforts she sat in the middle of the open platform and watched the quater moon rise over Mahora. A small tear trickled down the side of Chisame's face, "Maybe... this was all just a prank pulled by... someone... in the class." She said, trying to make herself feel just a bit better. She had looked down to wipe the tear away and noticed her finger had finally stopped bleeding. With no reason else to stay, Chisame slowly stood back up and shuffled her way to the still opened door. As she went to grab the door, a shadow appeared on the wall. Turning around, she saw Zazie standing on the edge of the tower with the moon hanging in the sky behind her, making her silver hair shimmer. "Rainyday-san," Chisame said in a quiet, surprised voice and, as if on cue, Zazie seemed to float off the ledge and landed a few feet in front of Chisame.

"Hasegawa-san," Zazie started in her normal quiet tone, " I was... worried about you," she said with some what of a quiver. For a moment, Chisame thought she saw a a gentile shimmer in Zazie's eye, but couldn't tell for certain with most of the light illuminating Zazie from behind.

"Wha... What did you call me here for? Where were you?" Chisame queried, taking a step towards Zazie.

"Where I was," Zazie started, "was on the roof. You were... taking so long. I hoped I'd be able to see when you were coming."

"All right then," Chisame said, taking another step foreword. The distance was making her uncomfortable, "but why am I here?" She repeated, a bit louder this time.

"Why?..." Zazie stopped in reflection before running to Chisame and burying her face in Chisame's chest. Chisame stood still, clearly surprised at the girl's actions. The thought crossed her mind to push the girl away when she heard a soft sobbing and felt a slight dampness on her blouse.

"Rain... Rainyday-san, what happened?" was all that came to Chisame's mind. Though she had no connection to the girl, and even thought that she was thoroughly bizarre, Chisame was very concerned. For the girl that had such an emotionless face and attitude to suddenly breakdown like this was nothing short but concerning.

"No," Zazie quietly answered, her sobs slowing down

"No, what?"

"No more... Rainyday-san."

Chisame was shocked. "Is this girl going to commit suicide?" was the first thing that came to mind. "You don't hav..." Zazie cut her off,

"Zazie... please... call me... Zazie..."

For a girl that Chisame had tried to avoid as much as she could to ask to be called by their first name was almost as much as a surprise as Zazie's emotional display, "Okay then," Chisame said softly in an attempt to calm her distressed classmate, "Zazie, what's wrong? Why am I here?" she asked again. This time, Zazie wrapped her arms around Chisame, her sobbing had stopped.

"Hasegawa-san... you're here because... you're you."

"What?" a puzzled Chisame answered.

"You... would have not liked it if I went to your dorm, so I asked you here." Zazie let go of Chisame and put her back to her, "I know Hasegawa-san thinks I'm strange so... I chose the place where no one will see her around me." She said, talking over her shoulder, sounding a bit distressed. A pang of guilt shot through Chisame. It was no secret in 3-A that Chisame wasn't to fond of anyone she had deemed strange or bizarre and usually distanced herself as far from them as possible and hearing Zazie pained voice while talking about it almost made Chisame cry out at her own insensitivity.

"Look, Rainy... Zazie," Chisame said, quickly correcting herself, "I'm... sorry, whatever it's about. I'm sorry for it." She spoke without looking at Zazie. She couldn't bring herself to see the pained look on Zazie's face. An odd silence had fallen and Chisame was unsure as to how long she had kept her eyes adverted, but when she decided to look back at Zazie, she was no more than a foot in front of her face. Chisame should have been surprised, she should have been frightened, and in the least, want to get back and get her space back but, for once, she felt wholly safe. Zazie shook her head,

"The reason your here is because..." A loud rumbling interrupted Zazie. Chisame looked around, looking for a cause of the sound. Zazie, unfazed and resuming her normal appearance, continued to speak, "The reason your here is because, I think I may..." Another loud rumbling had cut off Zazie's speech but it was followed by tremors that shook the decaying building causing small chunks to break away. Chisame, now extremely panicked, started to consider running away from this building and forgetting any of this ever happened. Zazie, almost as if she was reading Chisame's mind, grabbed a hold of her freshly scabbed wrist, and said, "I think I may be in trouble," She finally finished with another saddened expression as the rumbling and tremors became louder and more frequent while a loud, inhuman, screech erupted across academy.


	4. Don't Shed A Tear

**Well, heeeeeere's Rark again with another chapter to Don't Shed a Tear. I hope you guys are enjoying reading it as much as I do writing it. After that long break between chapters two and three, I thought it'd be a good idea to start cranking these out a bit faster ;; Before we start, I want to say, inside this chapter you get to see what I've wanted to see for Chizie since I've gotten into the pair. Also, you'll notice that I'm taking a more serious tone to this fic and that'll faze in and out of the rest of the fic. Enjoy!**

**Note: I do not own anything to do with the Negima!, Negima!? and Mahou Sensei Negima****brands... No matter how hard I wish...**

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**Chapter Four**

Don't Shed a Tear

The foundation of the aged tower trembled beneath the footsteps of a gargantuan, inhuman beast with a twisted resemblance to a bird. It's jagged maw opened as it let out a sickening screech. The noise rung in Chisame's ears as she felt a feeling of cold, brooding, terror consume her. Her only thoughts were of hopelessness and fear. Her body started to shiver in fear from the isolation that this dark feeling had swept across her. Tears started to stream from her eyes when a warm glow came from behind her and slowly brought her back to reality.

Chisame stood staring off at the demon in the distance being drawn to the tower, the realm of terror had disappeared as swiftly as it had come. She wondered if it was all a dream. A weight on her shoulder and a pulling on her waist told her otherwise. Zazie had her hands wrapped around Chisame in a tight hug and had her head resting on Chisame's shoulder. Chisame put her right hand comfortingly on one of Zazie's embracing arms. Zazie looked up. Every movement that the pair made seemed very slow, as if to make each other at ease. Both of them gazed off into the distance towards the demon, who was getting ever closer, but were never truly looking at it. Their eyes seemed to gaze into the unseen. The future, the past, perhaps even another dimension. Whatever they were seeing, they did not move, flinch or blink. They just stood in that embrace, staring into the unknown, together. A seldom tear streaked down Zazie's cheek, glimmering slightly as it passed over the tattoo of the same, before it landed, coolly, on Chisame. The moment had faded back into reality. Zazie, broke the silence, "Jiki, reaps terror where ever it goes. You, got pulled into his realm..." she paused when a slight tremble had found it's way into her voice. Chisame noticed and decided to lead the conversation,

"He's coming this way, isn't he?" Zazie nodded, Chisame felt it on her shoulder. "Shouldn't we mo..." Chisame had to think about what she was going to say next. She honestly didn't want to leave this spot, but with a gigantic monster coming at them, it was hard to think of what to do. There were so many unanswered questions, what Jiki is, how if got here, how Zazie knew what it was called. Chisame's mind kept on telling her to panic and how none of this made sense, her mind was going a mile a minute, but something insider her told her that none of that mattered, right now, Zazie did. Chisame has decided on what to say, "Zazie, you seem to know something about this. Is there anything we can do to stop him?" Zazie, turned her head and gaze away. Chisame put her other hand caringly on Zazie head. "It's all right Zazie" Chisame managed to turn herself around and faced Zazie with a smile. Zazie looked up, into Chisame's bespectacled eyes.

"No it's not," Zazie said while shaking her head again. "I shouldn't have got you involved, I'm sorry!" Zazie cried out. Chisame opened her mouth to speak but found Zazie's mouth instead. Her eyes went wide in surprise before a bright white light flashed in front of her eyes.

"Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep..." The electric metronome of a computer with to many button pressed went on, "Beep... Beep... Beep..." Chisame mumbled awake as she rose her head from her keyboard. Sunlight poured into the solely occupied room. Chisame's glasses had slid down her face. She lifted them in front of her eyes before tossing them on her bed, deciding it was to bright for them right now. Chisame stood up and started to looked around the room and herself in a haze. "But last night I was..." Chisame started to mumble to herself, "I went out to see..." A small pulse of pain shot through her head. She quickly put a hand where the pain went through. "I...I... can't remember what I did... Did I do anything at all?" Chisame tried hard to think about the night before, but nothing more came to mind. "I...I must have just dreamed it, whatever it was..." Though that was what she decided it must have been, there was a feeling of emptiness that she couldn't shake. She sat down, hanging her head over the back of the chair, and starred up at the ceiling. "Do I even have school today?" She thought to herself. If she did, there was no desire to go. "It's not like I've never skipped before." Chisame rose from the chair nonchalantly and put on a pair of jeans and a Z.O.E T-shirt before putting her glasses back on, picking up her laptop and heading for the door. She stepped out the door, but before closing it, she took one last look across her room. There was a feeling she couldn't shake that there was something missing. Trying to shrug it off, Chisame closed the door and headed for the train station.

Outside Chisame's window, leaves ruffled as something quickly left it's branch of a seat.

The familiar clicks and clanks of the train as it rolled down the tracks were nothing but white noise to someone as used to them as Chisame. She was coming back from the city after a bit of shopping. The trip was to try and comfort her as well as being practical A few new pieces of fabric for outfits were needed and bought, a couple discs anime that she'd been looking forward to, and some bandages sat in bags on the seat next to her. She didn't know how it happened, but while she was grabbing for one of the holding straps on the train, a sharp pain came from her hand. Noticing an open, bleeding cut, she decided it would be a good idea to keep it wrapped up. As she rode the railed car, she stared at the bandaged cut and slowly, and lightly, traced the shape with her finger. There was something about it, something important, that she just couldn't remember. A pained expression crossed her face as she tried so hard to just get a blip of why it felt so important. The train was slowing down now, and a digitized "ping" came over the speakers, "Mahora Academy Dorms, next stop, Mahora Academy Dorms". Chisame looked over at her bags and sighed, "Just great," she mumbled as she went to lift the bags of purchases she had made. The weight of the bag in her hand caused for another shot of pain from the cut. As she left the train, she had to look back, not fearing forgetting something, but a feeling of longing for something missing. Again, she shrugged it off and she hurried to make it out of the closing doors.

A gust of hot air went up from behind Chisame as she left the train and it started off again. It was never a pleasant experience, always stuffy and horrible smelling, this time though, it seemed cooler and had a nicer sent then usual. "Heh, must've put some frightfully new technology in there, like and air freshener," she said sarcastically to herself and had a small chuckle about it as she continued her walk off to the dorms. It wasn't exactly a far walk from the station to the dorms, but it seemed like it with the weight on her cut for Chisame. She stopped several times to just put the bags down and give her hand a break from it, so the walk back took ten minutes longer then usual. When she did make it back to the dorm, she realized that the doors might make getting in difficult, but once she reached the doors, one seemed to open by itself. Chisame looked around curiously, "Um, all right then..." She said before walking through the thoughtful door. Once in, a silver blur knocked into her, causing for her bags to be dropped. A flood strange feelings rushed through her at once and she turned to catch a better glimpse of whatever it was that bumped her. "Hey!" She shouted as she turned, but whatever it was had disappeared by then, and again Chisame was left with a feeling of missing something, but this time, she wasn't going to just let whatever it was just pass her by. Chisame kicked her stuff off to the side of the entrance and ran off in chase of the mystery blur.

It moved at a speed that was inhuman. Darting quickly across the open walk, dashing through the bushes at the side and bounding between the trees. Chisame was finding it more than difficult to have her eyes keep up with it. Eventually, she thought she saw it stop in a tree, and quickly run under it. "Hey!" Chisame called up at the tree, there was no response. "Ummmm, I just wanted to thank you for holding the door for me." She called out, again there was no response. "So, ummmm, thank you." Chisame said with a bow at the end. Through out this, oddly enough, Chisame didn't feel strange bowing and talking up at a tree. For Chisame, getting the blur to reveal itself to her was a priority. Silence followed her bow, and Chisame slumped her back against the tree, feeling neglected. She rubbed her thumb across her lips, "I remember things now, that don't make sense, and I remember things that I shouldn't be, but only after you..." Chisame paused to think again, "Your important to me, but I'm not sure why..." Chisame's voice seemed to trail off into a sadness that she could only briefly understand. "And," Chisame sniffled, "and, I want to know why there's a sadness in me whenever I think about what happened and who you are. It's not just sadness, there's also... Something else, something I've never felt before...I..." She had started hugging her knees and was crying into them. A small gust of win from behind Chisame blew her hair towards her feet, a soft hand caught the hairs and brought them back behind Chisame's head, brushing her cheek as it passed. Chisame turned her head, eyes closed, towards the hand. Again, timed seemed to slow. Chisame remembered this feeling, she remembered the moonlit clocktower, she remembered the beast in the distance, and she remembered her first kiss. "Zazie!" Chisame quietly exclaimed. "It doesn't feel right that it should be anybody else. It has to be Zazie." Chisame thought. All of this within the moment before she opened her eyes to see only the normal scenery.

Chisame's heart sunk with her body as it fell to her knees. Tears flowed down her face. "Why?" She cried out between periods of sobs. The pain she felt was so overwhelming, it hurt just to live. Chisame wanted to curse at Zazie for making her feel this way, but couldn't because... Chisame gasped. "You fool... Why'd you have to make me do something like that..." She said, tears still trickling down her face, with a slight smile. She wiped the tears away on her sleeve and noticed a piece of paper on the ground in front of her. It read, "The meeting tomorrow, don't go. Wait next to the tree you can see from the class window." Chisame nodded, as if the letter were spoken from the writer herself. "Of course." Chisame called out, "I've got somethings to say too". With that, Chisame headed back to the dorms and hoped her purchases were still at the door.


End file.
